Oriol Junqueras, Joaquim Forn, Raül Romeva, Jordi Turull, Josep Rull, Jordi Sànchez and Jordi Cuixart in Lledoners, Carme Forcadell in Mas d'Enric, and Dolors Bassa in Puig de les Basses; all the political prisoners are now back in Catalonia. They all arrived between 3 and 4 this afternoon. For the male prisoners, it was the third day of travelling after a journey that had taken them through three other prisons on the way; the female prisoners had only left Madrid this morning.
The male prisoners left Zuera prison in Zaragoza at 9am this morning, arriving at Brians II. There, the Civil Guard handed them over to the Catalan Mossos d'Esquadra who took them on to Lledoners, an hour north-west of Barcelona by road, where some fifty people were waiting to cheer them on.
All of the prisoners are now back in the prisons they had been held in before they were taken to Madrid in February for their trial.
The convoy to Lledoners, much larger than the one from 4th July last year when they were first brought to Catalonia, was escorted by BRIMO, the Mossos' public order division. They were transported in two vans, one red and one white. Turull, Rull and Forn were able to open a window to wave to the crowd.
Turull, Rull and Forn. Photo: Sergi Alcàzar.
According to prison service officials, "once at their destination centres, the prisoners will go to their respective entry units, where they will be identified by their fingerprints. They will undergo a medical exam, be allowed to call their families and then will head to individual cells in the same blocks where they were held from 4th July 2018 to 1st February, when they were transferred to Madrid to attend the hearings of their trial before the Supreme Court".
Yellow ribbons again
The police blocked access to the prison to all traffic except pedestrians. Pro-independence organisations ANC and Òmnium have organised a protest at 10pm, once temperatures are somewhat lower.
Among those waiting for the prisoners was clown and town councillor for Sant Joan de Vilatorrada, the town Lledoners is in, Jordi Pessarrodona. He criticised the fact the transfer was spread over three days and the refusals all through the process to grant them bail during the investigation or trial: "They're showing that the sentence will be very severe but they're stumbling up against a stubbornly risen-up Catalan people".
